WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Expanded thoughts from my Sunday Finger Lakes 355 Twitter posts.
* Clint Bowyer is turning into the Lou Holtz of NASCAR. Holtz always downplayed his teams, like Bowyer does with his road course acumen.
* Did Steve Addington jinx Tony Stewart? When Stewart’s crew chief said during the late rain delay that he wouldn’t be coming back to pit road, he was talking about gas, not a wreck.
* Kurt Busch had another lousy day. (You know it’s bad when you take it back to the garage on three tires. But he is behaving himself these days. He was cool with the media, and one of the nicest things I saw Sunday was him taking some extra time with some kids after the drivers meeting. He’s going to need James Finch in ’13, and the way he conducted himself Sunday was almost as important as his third-place run in Sonoma.
* Lousier day for for Earnhardt-Ganassi drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray. On one hand it’s impressive that the team has avoided Silly Season speculation in the middle of a bad year and just re-inked McMurray. Kind of reminds you of the Pittsburgh Steelers. But on the other hand, when things go this bad should they have been looking?
* I know David Reutimann abhors road course racing. But it just looks bad for his career when he gets replaced by Tommy Baldwin Racing for the road course events. He’s a good guy and you hope the chatter about him fielding a second car for JTG Daugherty Racing has some truth to it. But road courses are now too important for a guy so allergic to them.
* Always a bad sign for NASCAR economy: There are so few fully-funded cars that the No. 10 (J.J. Yeley for Reutimann) can start-and-park and easily keep Danica Patrick in the top 35 for her starts.
* Boris Said has very little chance to compete driving for Frankie Stoddard. But it still sucked to see him going off course early, both for him and the fans. Folks were buying Said Head rainbow wigs in downtown Watkins Glen Saturday.
* It’s tough being an underfunded team at the track. While some were tuning engines, BK Racing was still putting the “93″ on the side of Travis Kvapils backup car.
* The biggest winner during a Sprint Cup race: Fans who come on a cloudy day and see the race get to halfway.
* I won’t spoil any of their material, but if you don’t bring a scanner to the race, get one so you can listen to the MRN Radio’s live feed during breaks. They’re hilarious!
* Unlike some drivers who grit their teeth during meet-and-greets, Brian Vickers was sincerely enjoying himself shaking hands with fans in Victory Lane a couple hours before the race. My first thought on Twitter: “Great driver/schmoozer. Where’s full-time ride?” Then he blows an engine on Lap 1. I think I’ll stop tweeting about him for his own good.
Follow Josh Stewart on Twitter @JoshNASCARWWE.
